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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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PAUL closes in Western Market
By Ella Mitchell, Staff Writer • April 22, 2024

Rental car company’s policy changes hinder student travel plans

Several student organizations and Greek chapters have had to change their travel plans after the University’s rental car supplier made its policies more strict.

Rental car company Enterprise raised the minimum age of student drivers to 21 following an insurance change. It also limited all trips for student drivers to 300 miles, a distance far shorter than the rides that Greek chapters usually take to initiation events each fall.

Beta Theta Pi president Matt Zahn said the chapter is scrambling to find ways to travel to the fraternity’s national headquarters in Ohio, a trip the group takes every year with new members from dozens of chapters across the country.

Zahn said the chapter cannot afford options like a charter bus.

“Due to the new travel restrictions, our annual fall trip to Ohio cannot happen,” Zahn said in an email. “The costs of chartering transportation are simply too great. It’s been a big disappoint for our members.”

Omeed Firouzi, a member of the roughly 30-student Sigma Nu chapter, said his organization would have to rethink transportation options for their semesterly trips to a cabin in Virginia. The small chapter doesn’t have enough members who are over 21 years old to drive three cars, which they need to bring every fraternity brother.

“It’s something we’ll definitely have to consider down the road,” Firouzi said.

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